ONE GREAT YEAR – Tamara Veitch and Rene DeFazio

This is not an easy book to read. In the descriptions of the book it is referred to as an ‘epic’ story but ‘epic’ doesn’t just mean a heroic journey, but it also means ‘long’ and that describes this very well.

Marcus has been selected to become an ‘Emissary’ and as such, he is charged with protecting the ancient secrets. He has been reincarnated so many times he has lost count. He’s not supposed to remember one lifetime to the next, but he secretly takes a serum that allows him to remember his past life. This leads to centuries of painful memories and loneliness. But not remembering his past might mean he loses his soulmate, Theron. Memories also help him to remember his nemesis, Helghul.

The premise here is really interesting and the early portions of the book are extremely well done. I loved the way the authors wove the history into the story. It definitely created an air of authenticity. But the closer the story got to modern day the less interesting the story became.

While the book is epic in scope, like many epic stories it hinges on something simpler. It is a love story at its core, and I never bought in to this ‘true love’ of Marcus’. And because I didn’t believe in the love story, the rest of this became a very long-winded story without heart.

Despite the centuries that Marcus gets to (or has to) live, he doesn’t seem to grow or become changed. This grew dull to me.

There’s a lot spirituality and world-view-commentary contained within these pages, and ordinarily I’d really like that, but here it just bogged the story down.

Looking for a good book? One Great Year by Tamara Veitch and Rene DeFazio tries to be an epic fantasy that offers up some spiritual ideas that transcend a single generation, but the book gets bogged down by the writing and the romance that carries through just never catches on.